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Pet owners in Dallas can rest a little easier knowing their pets could have a better chance at surviving a fire. A large donation of pet oxygen masks were given to the Dallas Fire and Rescue Department on Tuesday.
(Published Tuesday, June 24, 2014)

Pet owners in Dallas can rest a little easier knowing their pets could have a better chance at surviving a fire.

A large donation of pet oxygen masks were given to Dallas Fire-Rescue on Tuesday.

"She won't like this very much, but she will let me do it,” explained Dallas Fire and Rescue Lt. Patti Crafft. "You are going to do this, slide it straight on their face."

Crafft showed exactly how a pet oxygen mask worked on their urban rescue and search dog Hula.

"This gasket will go over the snout of a dog or cat," said Lt. Crafft. "If you put it on when they are awake they won't like it, but this will hold it on there."

Before this year, not all fire stations had these type of masks for animals.

That all changed when Joyce Ferguson, a board member of the Highland Meadows Neighborhood Association, thought of an idea.

"I guess it originated in my head, and I checked it out, and did a little research and found we did not have them in Dallas," said Ferguson.

Ferguson got with her association, and they started to raise money at the beginning of this year. They were then joined with the company Invisible Fence who also helped.

They were able to purchase two pet oxygen mask sets for all 57 Dallas Fire-Rescue stations.

"It feels wonderful," said Ferguson. "It just feels wonderful."

Dallas firefighters say they are now confident that many more pets will be saved with these masks.

"You won't like this, but if you were unconscious you would,” said Lt. Crafft to her dog Hula. “Good girl."

The pet oxygen masks will be distributed on Tuesday, and each fire station will have them in operation by Wednesday.